(with the hope that everyone in my family
will think about making a similar list before their birthdays and/or Christmas roll
around!)

EX TECH DAY

24 January 2006

"Is this Ex-Tech day?" asked Barbara
Heroux, artistic director for The Lamplighters, looking at the group of people coming into
the theatre to see The Pirates of Penzance. She had coined a new
phrase.

It seems like I've known
Barbara forever, from when she was a young girl, moving from the chorus into comprimario
roles, then into lead roles. I worked with her, and others, for a few years after
Gilbert died in writing Gala scripts--her brilliant, clever, bizarre mind going a mile a
minute...how I loved those days!

She then took over as General Manager for the
company and now serves as its Artistic Director. I guess I've known her for some 25
years.

We were there with a group of friends who all
used to work as techies for The Lamplighters, jobs which ceased to exist when the company
moved into professional theatres which demanded union technicians. But by that time,
the group had forged fast friendships and so we still get together from time to time,
either for dinners or barbecues or birthday
parties.

Occasionally the group gets together to go and
see a Lamplighters show. Saturday it was The Pirates of Penzance, an
excellent production, directed by Jane Hammet (whom I remember from the days when she had
her very first major role; she went on to play Carlotta in the touring company of Phantom
of the Opera for many years, and now is an excellent director), with a new young
musical director in the pit, fresh from the San Francisco Opera.

Days like this make me realize just how long
I've been around this company. It is now second generation Lamplighters who are
running things, with third generation Lamplighters standing in the wings ready to take
their place.

I looked at a copy of the newsletter lying on
the table--Cock and Bull. Gilbert and I started that newsletter in 1981 and
wrote it together for five years. I had the same feeling that I had writing the DCOC
article, when I came across copies of the old Basingstoke Bugle, which I am
fairly certain I was the first editor of.

There were six of us who went to the show --
ex-techs and spouses -- and four more who met at the restaurant, Buca di Beppo, for dinner
afterwards.

The "show" people got to the
restaurant an hour early and while we waited for the "restaurant only" people,
we sat in the bar drinking and laughing.

For those who have never been to a Buca di
Beppo, it's very definitely an experience. The decor alone is worth the price of
admission, with the walls literally covered with photos and strange pieces of bric-a-brac.
All the food is served family style, you find more groups than tables for two, so
as the place begins to fill up, and the wine begins to flow more freely, the noise level
rises to where you can hardly hear yourself think.

(this is actually a photo from the last time the ex-techs
had dinner at Buca di Beppo)

I sat underneath a picture of an orantugan
giving the world the finger, which was hung under a huge photo of the young Sophia Loren
(showing a bit of under-arm hair, we all pointed out--obviously from her days in the
Italian cinema), and across from a photo of a kitten covered with spaghetti.

Unfortunately, we've never had a large enough
group to reserve The Pope Room...

(Steve Schalchlin actually took this photo in 2001)

...but the pope is very big here, with photos
of various popes hanging all over the place (note the pope head on a lazy susan in the
middle of the table there).

We enjoyed several delicious courses and were
uncomfortably full at the end of the meal. I give a lot of credit to Stephen, the
former tech director of The Lamplighters, who has kept this group of people together,
finding reasons to meet socially. We have dinners or barbeques at his house, go to
baseball games together, and occasionally see new Lamplighter productions together.

The Ex-Tech group is alive, getting older
(we've celebrated Arthur's 86th birthday and Gil will turn 70 this year), but very much
still together.

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: 'I don't really understand. How is it the new plan going to fix the
problem?'

Verbatim response: PRESIDENT BUSH:

'Because the  all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For
example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not
benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases There's a series of parts of
the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost
drivers, affecting those  changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get
what has been promised more likely to be  or closer delivered to that has been
promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of
things that cause the  like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the
increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we
calculate  the benefits will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage increases.
There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other
words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those  if
that growth is affected, it will help on the red.'

Reagan's title of "the great
communicator" is safe for the moment.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Very few people reading this journalwill get why I'm posting this picture, but it'sworth it anyway!